General Features of a Park System 
For Chattanooga, Tennessee 



REPORT 

TO 

THE BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS 



BY 

JOHN NOLEN 

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT 

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 




I'HKSENTUD MY 




k 3 



GENERAL FEATURES 



OF A 



PARK 5Y5TEM FOR CHATTANOOGA 

BY 

. JOHN NOLEN 

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT 
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 




BOSTON 

GEO. H. ELLIS CO.. PRINTERS 

1911 



^ 



?*\ 



Setter of Erattamttfal 

To the Board of Park Commissioners, 
Chattanooga, Tenn. 

Gentlemen, — I beg to hand you herewith the Report and 
General Plan for a Park System for Chattanooga. The oppor- 
tunity that confronts your city to create a comprehensive 
system of parks is seldom equalled; but Chattanooga is growing 
rapidly, and the value of land is rising even more rapidly. 
Therefore, if large and satisfactory results are to be secured, 
action must be prompt and business-like. It is doubtful if 
the preparation of the park plans could have been undertaken 
at a more opportune time. 

Yours very truly, 

John Nolen, 

Landscape Architect. 

Cambridge, Mass., 10 March, 1911. 









MtmhtrB of ite 

Mnwtb of Park QIiratmteaumroB 

(ttfjattaunnga 

R. S. FAXON, President 
Dr. S. B. COOK 
Dr. J. B. LEE 



JOHN NOLEN, Landscape Architect 



111 



" The life history of humanity has proved nothing more clearly 
than that crowded populations, if they would live in health and 
happiness, must have space for air, for light, for exercise, for 
rest, and for the enjoyment of that peaceful beauty of nature 
which, because it is the opposite of the noisy ugliness of towns, 
is so wonderfully refreshing to the tired souls of townspeople." — 
Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect. 

"I have spoken of the utilization of public reservations as if 
they were to be expected to yield only health and enjoyment and 
improved powers of perception; but I should deal with the subject 
very imperfectly if I did not point out that the right utilization 
of public reservations is a strong agency for promoting public 
morality and a high standard of family life. . . . The appropri- 
ate pleasures of forest reservations or country parks are all cheer- 
ing, refining, and cleansing; they are soothing and uplifting; 
they separate city men and women from the squalor, tumult, and 
transitoriness of the human ant-hill, and bring them face to face 
with things calm, lovely, grand, and enduring." — Charles W. 
Eliot, President Emeritus Harvard University. 



IV 




BOYNTON PARK 




EAST LAKE PARK 



I. g>?iertum of Park Kattfcis 

The establishment of a system of parks and pleasure 
grounds for a rapidly growing city is one of the most 
difficult and responsible duties that ever falls to a city 
government, involving as it does the expenditure of 
large sums of money and the construction of many per- 
manent public works. The principles which should 
control the selection of park lands may be briefly sum- 
marized as follows: (1) Accessibility for all classes of 
citizens by walking, driving, riding, or by means of 
cars. (2) Adaptability, or the selection of land possess- 
ing in the greatest degree the natural physical charac- 
teristics necessary for the particular park purposes to 
be served, and thus requiring the least expenditure for 
subsequent development. In this connection the boun- 
daries of the property should have special consideration. 
(3) Economy, or the selection, so far as practicable, of 
inexpensive lands and lands which would least disturb 
the natural growth of the city. (4) Early action, or the 
selection of property for parks in advance of the settle- 
ment of a neighborhood. 

While there is a wide-spread appreciation in American 
cities of the necessity for a large increase in the number 
of parks and playgrounds, few even of the more en- 
lightened communities seem yet to understand that these 
open spaces are of great variety, that they are or ought 
to be selected and designed to serve radically different 
purposes, and that the failure to understand this prin- 
ciple and to keep it constantly in mind leads to gross 
waste and inefficiency in our public grounds. In few 
other phases of public or private life is there so general 

[1] 



CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM 

a lack of clear thinking. This is an important matter, 
because failure to select sites discriminatingly, to design 
them for specific purposes, and to confine their use to 
those purposes is to lose to a considerable degree the 
benefits that might otherwise accrue to the people. Of 
course, it is true in this, as in most other matters, that there 
is some overlapping. The purposes are not absolutely 
distinct, and most public grounds are serviceable in a 
number of different ways. It is equally true, however, 
that the greatest efficiency here, as elsewhere, depends 
upon careful planning, upon a clear and intelligent differ- 
entiation, upon a recognition that the ends to be served 
are different, and that, therefore, different means must 
usually be employed to meet them. 

A park system for such a city as Chattanooga should 
be planned comprehensively, and the recreational pur- 
poses of each property selected should be clearly under- 
stood. The units of a park system are: (1) city squares 
or small open spaces; (2) playgrounds; (3) small or 
neighborhood parks; (4) large outlying parks or scenic 
reservations; (5) a chain of connecting drives or park- 
ways. Few American cities have yet what can properly 
be called a comprehensive, well - balanced, and well- 
developed system of parks and pleasure grounds, but it 
should certainly be the aim of park commissioners in 
securing park lands to select them with regard to the 
ultimate establishment of such a system. The recom- 
mendations for Chattanooga embodied in this Report 
provide fairly adequately for every feature except city 
squares and the large outlying scenic reservations. The 
former it is probably now too late to obtain: the latter 
are unusually well provided in Chickamauga Park and 
the other parks in or near Chattanooga belonging to 
the National Government. 

[2] 



II. ©fit of Park properties 

The following is a list of existing and proposed park 
properties for Chattanooga, all of which are shown on 
the accompanying map. 

1. CFfY SQUARES AND SMALL OPEN PLACES 

Houston Park 

This is an existing square of an acre or more, and 
is a type that should be duplicated in other sections 
of Chattanooga. In a Southern city such open spaces 
are even more needed than in the North. 

Erlanger Park 

It is desirable for Chattanooga to secure before it 
is too late some small parks, like Houston Park, but 
adjoining public or semi-public institutions. A good 
example of such a property is to be found in the ten 
or twelve acre tract extending from the Erlanger 
Hospital grounds to East End Avenue and from Harri- 
son Avenue to Blackford Street. It is a beautiful 
grove of native trees, and would make a valuable 
and permanent addition to Chattanooga's proposed 
park system. 

Railroad Approaches 

More openness for use and appearance is exceedingly 
desirable in front of both of the railroad approaches 
to Chattanooga. It may be impossible now to secure 
additional space near the new terminal of the Southern 

f 3 1 



CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM 

Railway, but it ought to be possible in the rearrange- 
ment that appears inevitable at the Union Station to 
provide for a Plaza in front of the station, and perhaps 
a widening of Ninth Street from Broad Street to Market, 
so as to secure an open place in the very heart of the 
city where it is imperatively needed. At the same 
time Ninth Street ought to be widened all the way to 
Georgia Avenue. 

A Plaza in St. Elmo at the Foot of the Incline Railway 

At the present time this is a congested and ugly spot, 
and yet it is one of the natural focal points of Chatta- 
nooga. There should be a more liberal opening for 
the traffic which centres here and a more orderly- 
looking approach to Lookout Mountain. 

A Public Garden 

With the climate that Chattanooga enjoys, a centrally 
located public garden, such as that of Boston or Hali- 
fax, would afford quiet outdoor pleasure during many 
days of the year. It appears difficult now to secure 
land for this purpose unless some of the property in 
the rear and at the side of the new Municipal Building 
can be had. 

2. PLAYGROUNDS 

Public School Yards 

In many cases, especially in outlying sections, the 
school yards are liberal in extent, but, before they can 
be made valuable for play and recreation, they must 
be developed under carefully prepared plans. In 
other cases the grounds around the school buildings 
are inadequate, but, as few sections are yet built up 

[41 





MISSIONARY RIDGE 




ANDREW JACKSON PARK 



LIST OF PARK PROPERTIES 

closely, these grounds could be enlarged without great 
cost. School yards of suitable size and construction 
are indispensable for recess play and for the play 
after school hours for small children. 

Highland Playground 

Here is an opportunity to get three full blocks extending 
from Hawthorne to Hickory Streets and from Anderson 
to Henderson Streets. It is relatively level land, well 
located and , admirably adapted for playground pur- 
poses. 

Locust Street Park 

In Bushtown there is a low-lying tract, extending for 
2,500 feet or more along Citico Street, which would 
make a useful recreation park and playground for the 
people residing in that section. It is property which 
is not adapted for building purposes. Under private 
ownership it is more than likely to become a nuisance. 

Playground Sites in and along the River and Creek Parkways 

If the proposed reservations are made on the Ten- 
nessee River and on Chattanooga and South Chicka- 
mauga Creeks, it would be possible to set aside small, 
suitable, and convenient open spaces for play purposes 
that would be available for different neighborhoods 
throughout the city. 

Olympia Playfield 

This 70-acre tract, formerly an "amusement park," 
is ideal in location and well adapted topographically 
for a central playfield, the culminating feature in the 
grounds devoted to physical education and recreation. 
The plans which have recently been made for similar 

[5] 



CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM 

grounds in some of the larger cities, including a sta- 
dium, could be adapted to the needs of Chattanooga, 
and a complete development gradually secured. 



3. SMALL NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS 

Boynton Park 

Cameron Hill, or Boynton Park, as it is now called, 
is a well-selected site for a small or neighborhood park. 
Its value, however, would be greatly increased if the 
land between the hill and the river could be acquired 
and added to the present park. Most of this land is 
steep and rough hillsides and not at all suited for 
building purposes. 

Jackson Park 

Andrew Jackson Park is a centrally located tract of 
fertile land, comprising about thirty-five acres, sur- 
rounding the National Cemetery. It is covered with 
a fine growth of native timber. Two years ago the 
development of this property for park purposes was 
begun and substantial progress has been made in 
road-building and the construction of entrance gates 
and shelters. I recommend that the present plans 
for its improvement, which seem to me wise, be 
continued. 

Orchard Knob 

The Federal Government owns and maintains this 
small park, which was the site of Grant's Headquarters. 

East Lake Park 

East Lake is the best illustration in Chattanooga 
of what a neighborhood park may be. It is small 

[61 



LIST OF PARK PROPERTIES 

(about 15 acres), and somewhat distant from the 
city, and yet it furnishes the nucleus of a beautiful 
small park. I strongly recommend that the additional 
property shown on the map be acquired, extending 
the present park to the Crest Road on one side and to 
the Mission Ridge Circuit Drive on the other. The 
city would then have a park of nearly 40 acres, well 
located and well bounded, and, if a general plan were 
prepared for its development, it would prove, I am 
confident, a very satisfactory park. 

Woodland Park 

The 50 or 60 acre tract of well-grown woodland, bor- 
dering on the Rossville Road near East End Avenue, 
is one of the few remaining opportunities of Chatta- 
nooga to secure a grove of large trees near the built-up 
sections of the city. I recommend its acquisition. 

Harrison Pike Park 

This triangular tract is in the same class with "Wood- 
land Park," mentioned above, and would provide a 
valuable park of about 45 acres in a section that is 
just beginning to build up rapidly. It is bordered by 
Harrison Pike, McNiel Avenue, and the Southern 
Railway tracks. 



4. LARGE OUTLYING OR SCENIC RESERVATIONS 

Tennessee River Park 

At the mouth of South Chickamauga Creek, border- 
ing on the Tennessee River, is a high and sightly 
tract of 150 acres or more, covered with large trees, 
which is an almost ready-made park. It possesses 

[7] 



CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM 

every requirement of an ideal park except transporta- 
tion facilities, but, as it is only three miles from the 
centre of the city, there can be no question that car 
service will soon be provided for this section. Its 
acquisition should not be delayed. 

Moccasin Bend 

One of Chattanooga's world-famous points, which 
should not remain in private hands, is Moccasin Bend. 
At present it is agricultural land, quite unspoiled 
and inexpensive. It would pay the city to acquire 
now several hundred acres or more and set the tract 
aside for future development. 

Lookout Mountain Park 

Point Park on Lookout Mountain is already a park 
reservation of the Federal Government, and from its 
heights is commanded a scene rich in beauty and 
historic associations. But Point Park is not enough. 
The ground owned by the Federal Government is 
limited in extent and in use. If possible, it should be 
supplemented by the tract of 30 acres or more at the 
top of the Incline, as indicated on the map. It is not 
wise for the people of Chattanooga to confine their 
enjoyment of the unique opportunities of Lookout 
Mountain to the little piece of land which the Federal 
Government has acquired and maintains primarily 
as a military memorial. 

The River Islands 

Chattanooga Island, Tow Head Island, and Williams 
Island should all be acquired for public use. Action 
now would be relatively easy. 




ON WALDEN'S RIDGE 




ON MISSIONARY RIDGE 



LIST OF PARK PROPERTIES 

Stringer's Ridge 

It is a question of judgment whether now is the time 
or later for the city of Chattanooga to secure the land 
necessary for a wild mountain park on Stringer's Ridge. 
A comprehensive park system should ultimately in- 
clude such a reservation. 

Chickamauga National Park 

The biggest outlying park and scenic reservation is 
that established by the Federal Government, two and 
a half miles from Rossville, on the site of the battle- 
field. It is finely situated, and comprises now 6,473 
acres. It is true that the character of development 
which the Government has adopted for its military parks 
does not render the reservation ideal for recreation 
purposes, and yet its roads and trees and outlooks, 
not to mention the interest of monuments and forts, 
make it a pleasure ground of no small value. 



5. DRIVES, PARKWAYS, AND AVENUES 

Riverfront Drive 

It is too late to make a satisfactory parkway along the 
Tennessee River in front of the built-up section of the 
city, but it ought to be possible to secure a narrow 
drive directly on the river, beginning at Chattanooga 
Creek and terminating in the proposed Tennessee 
River Park at the mouth of South Chickamauga Creek. 
Such a drive could be so planned and constructed as 
not to interfere seriously with the industrial and business 
interests on the Riverfront. In fact, by providing 
a good, continuous road on easy grades, it would be 



CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM 

an aid to these interests. I consider this one of the 
most practical, important, and urgent of my recom- 
mendations. 

Hill City River Drive 

The opportunity which has been lost to do something 
really good on the Chattanooga side of the river still 
remains on the Hill City side. Is there foresight 
enough to take advantage of it? At the present time 
there would be no serious difficulty in acquiring the 
land that would make easy later on the construction 
of a beautiful public parkway along the Hill City side 
of the Tennessee River. 

Rossville Road 

The Rossville Road is now, and probably always will 
be, mainly a traffic road. Nevertheless, because of its 
directness and width, it is an important pleasure-drive 
connection from the city to Rossville and beyond 
to Chickamauga Park. The proposed drive along 
Chattanooga Creek may ultimately divert much of 
the pleasure driving from the Rossville Road. 

The Hooker Road 

The Hooker Road furnishes a somewhat indirect and 
yet convenient connection from Rossville to the foot 
of the Lookout Mountain Incline in St. Elmo, a dis- 
tance of nearly four miles. I believe it does not follow 
exactly the historic route of General Hooker, which 
is to be regretted. It is also to be regretted that this 
road, in common with nearly all the other roads of 
the Federal Government, is of such inadequate width 
(only 20 feet clear roadway) and completely lacking 

r 10 1 



LIST OF PARK PROPERTIES 

in planting or any other treatment that would make 
its environment attractive and appropriate. 

Chattanooga Creek Parkway- 
It would not be expensive to secure a strip with an 
average width of 1,000 feet, following Chattanooga 
Creek from the Tennessee River to the Georgia line, 
as indicated on the map. While some of this land is 
occasionally flooded, the water is high only for a very 
limited period. This parkway, some six miles in 
length, would be of great use and beauty and furnish 
a location for drives and open spaces that could not 
be duplicated. 

South Chickamauga Creek Parkway 

At the other end of the city from the Chattanooga Creek 
Parkway would be the South Chickamauga Creek Park- 
way. This has a good beginning in the Tennessee 
River Park, and from there could be gradually extended 
until in time it reached, perhaps, the great Chicka- 
mauga Park of the Government. The valley in which 
this creek runs is even more rugged and more lovely 
than that of Chattanooga Creek, and the opportunity 
to secure it for a parkway is now so favorable that it 
would be altogether inexcusable to neglect it. 

Mission Ridge Circuit Drive 

The Mission Ridge Circuit Drive alone, if carried to 
its logical completion and properly executed, would 
lend distinction to a community. It should include 
the present Crest Road of the Government, and a 
park drive of adequate width and right character 
skirting the foot of the ridge, and making an unbroken 

fill 



CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM 

circuit of about thirteen miles, as shown on the general 
plan. The views from the Crest Road of city, valley, 
and mountain are unmatched, so far as I know, in any 
American city. 

In addition to these parkways and drives there are 
some city streets that should be considered as main 
avenues affording agreeable connections from the built- 
up sections of the city to the outlying parks and reserva- 
tions. In some cases it will be possible to widen and 
plant these avenues; in others, while widening may not 
now be practicable, they may in other ways be regulated 
and rendered more attractive.* These streets are as fol- 
lows : — 

Market Street (part of) Broad Street 

Eleventh Street Georgia Avenue 

East End Avenue McCallie Avenue 

Missionary Avenue Harrison Avenue 

Main Street Cowart Street. 
Ninth Street (part of) 

Taken together, the small open spaces, playgrounds, 
parks, parkways, and avenues, outlined above, comprise 
a fairly complete system for the Chattanooga of to-day, 

*The lack of foresight displayed by the Chattanooga City Council in 1849 
is illustrated in the adoption of ordinances reducing the width of streets. 
Cypress, Poplar, Walnut, and High were reduced from 100 feet to 60 feet; Mar- 
ket Street was reduced to 100 feet; Chestnut Street, from 100 feet to 60 feet; 
Cherry Street, from 60 feet to 40 feet; First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, 
Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Streets, from 66 feet to 46 feet. The ordi- 
nance states "that the ground taken from the street shall be added to the lots 
respectively to which it adjoins, and shall be taken and held as constituting a 
part of said lots, according to the plan of the town and shall belong to the owners 
thereof respectively, as fully and completely as if the same had been attached 
to the lots according to the original plan of the town." 

[12 1 




TENNESSEE RIVER SCENERY, CHATTANOOGA 




THE PROPOSED SOUTH CHICKAMAUGA CREEK PARKWAY 



LIST OF PARK PROPERTIES 

with some far -sighted provision for the larger Chatta- 
nooga of the future. All of the areas referred to have 
been indicated on the plan at the end of this report, en- 
titled "General Features of a Park System for Chatta- 
nooga." On account of the lack of any satisfactory map, 
especially one giving the topography, it is impossible to 
show exact boundaries for the proposed parks, parkways, 
and playgrounds. However, I believe that the boundaries 
are indicated with sufficient definiteness for our present 
purposes. ,Now, we need to get consideration and action 
only on the general features which the plan presents. 
Later, if public approval is obtained, it will be necessary 
to take up the planning in more detail. 

The actual average provision for parks and public 
grounds for American cities is one acre for every two 
hundred of the population. The cost of the land, taking 
expensive and inexpensive property together, averages 
about a thousand dollars an acre, and the cost of con- 
struction, while it varies a good deal in different communi- 
ties, averages nearly another thousand dollars an acre. 
First-class maintenance amounts to about a hundred or a 
hundred and twenty dollars an acre per annum. If we 
assume that the real Chattanooga has a population of 
100,000 or more, with the prospect of a steady increase 
in the future, and that the cost of land here is below the 
average, these figures would justify a city park system 
of at least five hundred acres and an outlay for land and 
construction of, at least, $500,000; and for annual main- 
tenance $25,000, rising gradually, as the system develops, 
to $50,000. Chattanooga should be compared in the 
matter of parks with other cities of its class in various 
parts of the country. For example, take such cities as 
Dayton, Ohio; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Tacoma, 
Washington; Wilmington, Delaware; Harrisburg, Penn- 

[13 1 



CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM 

sylvania; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Hartford, Con- 
necticut and Oklahoma City. Dayton has six parks, 
for the acquisition of which it has issued bonds for more 
than $100,000. One of its small parks includes a field 
house, with gymnasium, baths, and swimming pool, con- 
structed at a cost of $130,000. Grand Rapids has parks 
comprising several hundred acres and worth $400,000. 
The annual appropriation averages $50,000. Tacoma, 
Washington, with the characteristic public spirit of the 
North-west, has secured already 1,000 acres of parks and 
levies an annual tax of 1^2 mills for their support. Wil- 
mington, Delaware, by persistent and well-directed efforts, 
has acquired and improved 300 acres of parks at a cost for 
land and construction of about half a million dollars. A 
loan of $250,000 is now being proposed for new parks and 
playgrounds. Harrisburg has now 749 acres of parks and 
playgrounds, for the acquisition of which it has issued 
bonds for $250,000. The city appropriates annually about 
$30,000 for maintenance. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
looks to the Boston Metropolitan Park system, in which 
it is included, for its large parks, but for local use it has 
many small parks, playgrounds, and open spaces which 
are now valued at more than $4,000,000. Its park loans 
amount to $1,519,000, and it appropriates about $40,000 
a year for park maintenance. Hartford, Connecticut, 
one of the most progressive of small American cities, 
has now 21 parks and open spaces with a total of 1,335 
acres. It appropriates in the neighborhood of $50,000 
a year for maintenance and new work. Oklahoma City, 
with less population than Chattanooga, has officially 
adopted a plan which provides for 1,966 acres of parks 
and 70 miles of parkways and boulevards. A bond issue 
of $400,000, which is $8 per capita, has been approved 
by the people by a vote of two to one. 

[14] 



LIST OF PARK PROPERTIES 

These figures will at first glance appear high as com- 
pared with what Chattanooga is now spending, but it 
should be remembered that the city is at present back- 
ward in the matter of parks. Moreover, this expense 
would be distributed over a period of years. The value 
of land, if carefully purchased, would always equal, 
indeed soon exceed, the total cost of acquisition and con- 
struction with interest; and the cost for maintenance 
would be covered by an expense of less than fifty cents 
a year per capita, which is a low charge, considering the 
benefits that each citizen would receive. But, to justify 
Chattanooga in proceeding in this large and business- 
like way, ample grounds should be selected in various 
sections, somewhat as proposed, which would provide 
for many years a comprehensive system for different 
forms of recreation and for all the people of the city. 



15 



III. Park Administration 

The recent act of the State Legislature, changing the 
form of the city government of Chattanooga from the 
present type to that of the commission form, means a 
reorganization of all city departments, including the park 
department. It may, therefore, be timely and of some 
slight advantage to outline the points that have been 
found by experience to be of greatest importance in 
the effective organization and administration of parks. 

First with regard to the composition of the park 
board or commission, the best results have been secured 
usually from a body composed of not less than three 
nor more than five members, serving without pay, and 
with overlapping and rather long terms of service. 
The president of the board should be a distinctly able 
administrator, accustomed to large affairs and resource- 
ful. He should have some measure of constructive im- 
agination, high ideals, and sympathy with the people. 
Moreover, it is of great advantage if he has had some of 
the fruits of travel, acquainting him at first hand with 
the parks and public improvements of other cities. The 
success of the park work of a city, especially in its initial 
stages, must rest very largely in the selection of the right 
man to head the park board. 

The other members of the board should be men of 
good taste, men capable of judging accurately what is 
appropriate in the form of development for this or that 
park. They should possess a nice discrimination as to 
the best means to employ to produce consistent effects. 
It is not yet customary to appoint women on park boards, 

[16] 



PARK ADMINISTRATION 

but many of them possess the qualifications that are most 
desirable. They have often a love of nature, a knowledge 
of art and familiarity with the purposes of parks, espe- 
cially the relation of parks and playgrounds to children, 
which men do not possess to the same degree. 

The board of park commissioners should confine 
itself to questions of general policy. It should not 
attempt to make plans or designs for park grounds, to 
administer park laws and regulations, nor to supervise 
park maintenance. Advice as to the selection of land 
for parks, plans for their laying out and construction, 
and occasional suggestions as to their up-keep should be 
secured from well-qualified landscape architects, experts, 
who have gathered up the best results of study and ex- 
perience in this difficult field of art. There is danger 
of serious mistakes, if dependence is placed upon men 
who as engineers or gardeners know only a part of the 
work, for the final and highest justification of parks 
is their beauty; and, if they lack appropriate, permanent, 
and ever-increasing beauty, they fail, and the money 
spent for their construction and maintenance has been 
largely wasted. 

The execution of the plans of the professional land- 
scape architect, the selection of park employees, and the 
detailed administration of the park work should be 
intrusted to a trained superintendent. While his quali- 
fications are different from those of the landscape archi- 
tect, they are of a high order, and the success or failure 
of the parks as works of landscape art and their right 
use by the people will depend largely upon the super- 
intendent. Landscape art is different from any other, 
except the art of city making which includes it, in that 
it is an art which deals with growing things. It is not 
fixed like a painting, a statue, or a building. From year 

[17] 



CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM 

to year it changes, takes on new forms and proportions. 
Therefore, if suitable and artistic results are to be se- 
cured, this process must be steadily and intelligently 
controlled and guided. Such work requires a man of 
taste as well as knowledge, and there is to-day in this 
field an increasing demand for superintendents of high 
qualifications to serve in a vocation of unusual delight 
and usefulness. 

If a park board is to proceed economically and con- 
fidently in the execution of large plans for park develop- 
ment, it must be independent of financial or other control 
by the city government. Otherwise, a vacillating policy 
must be expected, inferior results, and considerable 
waste of public funds. Independence in the matter of 
the annual appropriation is especially important. There 
should be a law giving the park board a fixed percentage, 
based upon the assessed valuation of the city. This 
automatic method is sound, because the regular park work 
increases in proportion to the population and wealth. 
Unusual needs should be provided for by additional 
appropriations by the city government, in excess of the 
regular appropriation. As clear a line as possible should 
be drawn between maintenance, on the one hand, and 
acquisition of land and permanent construction, on the 
other. Maintenance expense should be met from current 
funds, but the cost of acquisition and permanent con- 
struction should usually be provided by long-time loans. 
The most indestructible and permanently valuable asset 
of the city is the land it owns, and its acquisition should 
almost invariably be provided for by loans. One excep- 
tion to this rule is when the method of payment followed 
is that of special assessment on abutting or near-by prop- 
erty. Kansas City adopted this method fifteen years ago, 
and under it successfully developed its entire park system, 

[18 1 



PARK ADMINISTRATION 

providing for an expenditure of over ten million dol- 
lars without the issue of any bonds whatever. 

In park administration, then, the points of greatest 
importance to keep in mind are the composition of the 
park commission, the adoption of a sound general policy, 
the liberal use of expert designers, the employment of 
a highly qualified superintendent, and entire freedom 
from political control. The park board may then be- 
come an effective instrument for serving all the people 
of the city, contributing in innumerable ways to their 
health and joy. 

Chattanooga has great natural advantages. Its noble 
river, its bold ridges, its unique Lookout Mountain, its 
fertile land, are all real resources. Its climate averages 
43° in winter, 77° in summer, 60° in spring and autumn. 
In historic associations it is equalled by few American 
cities, and, as a result, we have the great parks and their 
approaches created by the Federal Government,* and the 
graceful shafts, memorials to war heroes, erected by the 
several States. Chattanooga is growing by leaps and 
bounds, steadily advancing in wealth, in industry, in 
population. In a decade its banking capital has in- 
creased 92 per cent.; its deposits, 181 percent.; the num- 
ber of industries, 77 per cent. ; the value of its products, 
220 per cent. Chattanooga's increase in population has 
kept pace with its increase in wealth and industry, jump- 
ing from 49,706 to 94,000 in a decade, — a population, 
too, that is noted for its energy and progressiveness 
and drawn from almost every State in the Union. 

What does Chattanooga lack? Not only the members 

*In the neighborhood of Chattanooga the Federal Government has ac- 
quired as parks or park approaches 6,875 acres at a total cost of $314,990, and 
appropriates for their maintenance an average of $75,000 or $80,000 a year. 

[19 1 



CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM 

of the Park Commission, but the business men generally, 
have been open-minded enough to recognize that the 
city lacks a modern city park system, a comprehensive 
plan for the prompt acquisition and orderly development 
of parks and other pleasure grounds. Its park posses- 
sions at present are small indeed. Including the 65 acres 
in Jackson Park given by the Federal Government, the 
city owns less than 100 acres in parks. It has no play- 
grounds and, what is even more surprising, no parkways 
or pleasure drives connecting the city with the National 
Parks in the neighborhood. The statement that Chatta- 
nooga has depended too much and too long upon "God 
and the Government" appears to have some justifica- 
tion. 

The importance of a comprehensive park system to the 
business success as well as the health and pleasure of a 
city is now widely recognized and often commented upon. 
Morris Knowles, a distinguished sanitary engineer, 
in writing recently on "The Development of Municipal 
Utilities in the South," said: "We hear a great deal 
about attracting industrial and manufacturing concerns 
to a community by all sorts of inducements, free water 
and free power for a time; free sites, low or no taxation, 
and for a while even cash bonuses. But there is a higher, 
better, and more certain standard determining the de- 
sirability of location. The careful, conservative business 
man or manufacturer will look further than the short- 
time effect of the above-named conditions. He will 
ask not only what are your natural facilities, and what 
are the inducements you will offer for a period of time, as 
above, but more important still, what are your provisions 
for public utilities, what of the methods and efficiency 
and honesty of your governmental forces as they affect 
the life of your community, and are they actuated by 

[20] 




CHATTANOOGA (REEK. ONE OF THE PROPOSED PARKWAYS 



PARK ADMINISTRATION 

honest, right living, efficient effort? Are you planning 
for commodious, sanitary, and safe housing facilities 
and a proper building code? Are you planning for the 
health of the community by a clear and pure water supply 
and sanitary disposal of sewage, household refuse, and 
waste? Are you planning for proper transit and traffic 
facilities that the people can get about to and from work 
and to the shopping districts comfortably and easily? 
Are you planning for good, well-administered schools, 
playgrounds, small open-air spaces, and larger parks, 
with plenty of opportunities for the children to grow 
up in a normal, open-air, healthful existence? We are 
fast coming to the time, if it is not already here, when 
the manufacturer, for his own advantage and his own 
pocket-book, because his help will thus stay with him 
as well as because of his broad humanitarian view-point, 
will ask these last questions largely, rather than how 
much power, water, or land can I get free or how many 
years' freedom from taxation." 

The first and last need of a city, the one that out- 
weighs all others, is civic spirit and the expression of 
that spirit in great and enduring public works, erected 
for the common welfare. Chief among these, according 
to modern standards and modern necessities, is a system 
of parks, playgrounds, and open spaces, adequate in 
extent, artistic in design, scientific in construction, and 
liberal in maintenance. In Chattanooga the first step, 
but only the first step, has been taken toward the forma- 
tion of such a system. It now rests with the com- 
munity to express its civic spirit, to manifest its faith 
in the future of Chattanooga by rallying to the support 
of the Park Commission and the great work which it 
has inaugurated. 



[21] 



MEMORABILIA ON PARK MAKING SELECTED 
FROM THE WRITINGS OF FREDERICK 
LAW OLMSTED, SR. 

"In scarcely anything to be determined by local 'public opinion 
acting infiuentially upon local legislation and administration, 
is a city as likely to be so much made or marred for all its future 
as in proceedings in prosecution of a park project." 

" It must be kept in mind that the public grounds of most cities 
have come to be what they are and where they are by various de- 
tached and desultory proceedings, of which the result, as a whole, 
illustrates penny -wise pound-foolish wisdom." 

"A man's eyes cannot be as much occupied as they are in large 
cities by artificial things, or by natural things seen under ob- 
viously artificial conditions, without a harmful effect, first on his 
mental and nervous system and ultimately on his entire consti- 
tutional organization. . . . Relief from this evil is to be obtained 
through the enjoyment of pleasing rural scenery." 

" The value of no rural park to the people who habitually use 
it would be seriously impaired if every scrap of ornament to be 
found upon it should fall to decay or be effaced." 

"Scenery is more than an object or a series of objects; more 
than a spectacle, more than a scene or a series of scenes, more 
than a landscape, and other than a series of landscapes. . . . But 
there is no beautiful scenery that does not give the mind an emo- 
tional impulse different from that resulting from whatever beauty 
may be found in a room, courtyard, or garden." 

"No city possessed of a rural park regrets its purchase" 

"It cannot be questioned that a rural park is rapidly coming 
to be ranked among the necessities of satisfactory city life." 

[22] 



MEMORABILIA ON PARK MAKING 

"No matter what may be ultimately expended for a park, its 
value cannot fail to be largely determined by the expectations and 
usage of it into which the public is led in the early years of their 
resort to it." 

"The only justification of a large park near a growing city 
is the necessity of spaciousness to the production of rural scenery." 

" The question of the economy of what is proposed in the plan 
for a park is less a question of what the work of construction will 
cost than of what ever afterwards will be required for reconstruc- 
tion, repairs and for pursuing a system of maintenance adapted 
to secure its intended qualities of beauty, and keep it in suitable 
order for its intended uses." 

" That those in charge of a park work may proceed economically 
and with profit they must be able to proceed with confidence, method 
and system, steadily, step after step, to carry to completion a 
well-matured design." 

"For every thousand dollars judiciously invested in a park 
the dividends to the second generation of the citizens possessing 
it will be much larger than to the first; the dividends to the third 
generation much larger than to the second." 

"It is an important test of the value of a park that it should 
be found of such a character, so finished and provided with such 
service, that a housekeeping woman would always find a visit to 
it economical, restful, tranquillizing and refreshing, for herself 
and her household." 

"A highly important part of the business of a park is that of 
arresting the progress of disease, hastening recovery, and con- 
servating the strength of the weak and the infirm of a city." 

" The chief end of a large park is an effect on the human organ- 
ism by an action of what it presents to view, which action, like 
that of music, is of a kind that goes back of thought, and cannot 
be fully given the form of words." 



SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PARKS AND 
RELATED TOPICS 

A Comprehensive System of Parks for St. Paul. As pro- 
posed by A. B. Stickney. 

A Decade of Civic Development. Charles Zueblin. 

A Development of Public Grounds in Cities and Vil- 
lages. (The Clemson Agricultural College Extension 
Work.) George A. Parker. 

An Essay on the Picturesque, etc. Sir Uvedale Price. 

A Normal Course in Play. The Playground Association of 
America. 

A Park System for Cincinnati. George E. Kessler. 

A Summer's Work Abroad, in School Grounds, Home 
Grounds, Playgrounds, Parks, and Forests. Mira 
Lloyd Dock. 

A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape 
Gardening. A. J. Downing. 

American Park Systems. Report of the Philadelphia Allied 
Organizations. 

American Playgrounds. E. B. Mero. 

Annual Park Reports. Boston; Metropolitan Park Com- 
mission, Boston; Chicago; Hartford, Connecticut; Balti- 
more; Madison, Wisconsin; Portland, Oregon; Portland, 
Maine; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Seattle; Rochester; 
Savannah; Kansas City; Dayton, Ohio; Tacoma; Wil- 
mington, Delaware; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and others. 

Beautifying and Improving Greenville, South Carolina. 
Kelsey and Guild. 

Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect. Charles W. Eliot. 

Chattanooga Park System. John Nolen. 

Children's Gardens for Pleasure and Health. Henry 
G. Parsons. 

[24] 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

City Development: A Study of Parks, Gardens, and 
Culture Institutes. Patrick Geddes. 

City Making in Wisconsin. John Nolen. 

City Planning. F. L. Olmsted. Published by American 
Civic Association. 

Civics and Health. William W. Allen. 

Codman Bibliography of Landscape Architecture. Bos- 
ton Public Library. 

Commons, Forests, and Footpaths. Lord Eversley. 

Comprehensive Planning for Small Towns and Cities. 
John Nolen. 

Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy. Joseph Lee. 

Development of Public Grounds for Greater Baltimore. 
Olmsted Brothers. 

Development of the Feeling for Nature. Alfred Biese. 

Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., and his Work. Studies of 
Mount Royal, Montreal, and Franklin Park, Boston: 
John Nolen. 

French and Other Continental Systems of Taking Land 
for Public Purposes. House Report No. 288, Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts. 

German Cities. Frederic C. Howe. 

Kansas City Park System. George H. Kessler. 

Landscape. Philip Gilbert Hamerton. 

Landscape Beautiful. F. A. Waugh. 

Landscape Gardening Studies. Samuel Parsons. 

Madison a Model City. John Nolen. 

Modern Civic Art. Charles Mulford Robinson. 

Municipal Engineering and Sanitation. M. N. Baker. 

National Parks. John Muir. 

Notes on the Plan of Franklin Park, Boston. Frederick 
Law Olmsted, Sr. 

Observations on Modern Gardening. Thomas Whately. 

[25] 



CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM 

Park Areas and Open Spaces in American and European 
Cities. (In American Statistical Association publica- 
tions, New Series, Vol. 1, No. % 3, pp. 49-61.) E. R. L. 
Gould. 

Park Laws and Ordinances. See Reports of Hartford, 
Connecticut; Boston; Minneapolis; Portland, Oregon; 
Peoria, Illinois; Madison, Wisconsin; and Baltimore. 

Park System of the District of Columbia. Burnham, 
McKim, Saint-Gaudens, and Olmsted. 

Planning and Developing a City Park System. Report 
to the Park Board of Portland, Oregon. Olmsted Brothers. 

Principles of City Land Values. Richard M. Hurd. 

Public Parks. Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. 

Public Recreation Facilities. Annals of the American 
Academy of Political and Social Science, February, 1910. 

Publications of American Civic Association; American So- 
ciety of Landscape Architects; American Association of 
Park Superintendents; American Scenic and Historic 
Preservation Society; National Trust for Places of His- 
toric Interest or Natural Beauty (English); Metropolitan 
Public Gardens Association (London). 

San Diego, a Comprehensive Plan for its Improvement. 
John Nolen. 

Shall Theoretical and Practical Agriculture and the 
Physical Development of Childhood be added to 
the Curriculum of the City Public Schools? A. B. 
Stickney. 

Special Articles on Parks in Johnson's Encyclopaedia, 
Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Encyclopaedia of Social 
Reform. 

Special Numbers of "Charities" on "Parks," "Play," 
and "City Planning," dated July 7, 1906, Aug. 3, 1907, 
Feb. 1, 1908. 

State Parks for Wisconsin. John Nolen. 

f 26 1 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Replanning the City of Reading. John Nolen. 
Reports of the South Park Commissioners, Chicago, on 

Playgrounds. 1905, 1906-08. 
Report upon a System of Public Reservations for the 

Metropolitan District of Providence. 
The Art of Landscape Gardening. By Sir Humphrey Rep- 
ton. John Nolen, editor. 
The Awakening of Harrisburg. J. Horace McFarland. 
The First County Park System. Frederick W. Kelsey. 
The Improvement of Columbia, S.C. Kelsey and Guild. 
The Improvement of Towns and Cities. Charles Mulford 

Robinson. 
The Making of a Park System in La Crosse, Wisconsin. 

John Nolen. 
The Parks and Recreation Facilities in the United 

States. John Nolen. 
The People at Play. Rollin Lynde Hartt. 
The Treatment of Nature in English Poetry between 

Pope and Wordsworth. Myra Reynolds. 
Water Parks. John Woodbury. 
What is Needed in American City Planning. John Nolen. 



MAGAZINES AND PERIODICALS 

Landscape Architecture. New York City. 

The American City. New York City. 

Park and Cemetery. Chicago. 

The Playground. New York City. 

The Town Planning Review. Liverpool, England. 

Garden Cities and Town Planning. London, England. 

Der Stadtebau. Berlin. 



[27 




GENERAL FEATURES OF A PARK SYSTEM FOR CHATTANOOGA TENNESSEE 



PARK COMMISSION. 
R. S. FAXON PRESIDENT 
OR S.B. COOK DR J. B. LEE 



SCALE 1000=1' 



JOHN NOLEN 
vNDSCAPE ARCHITECT 
CAMBRIDGE MASS 



nov i mi 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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